The Rababis are a community of musicians, now mostly resident in Pakistan, who trace their roots back more than five centuries to Bhai Mardana (1459-1534), a Muslim musician and disciple of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), founder of the Sikh religious community. Bhai Mardana accompanied and served the Guru his whole life as the pair travelled across South and Central Asia singing songs of divine wisdom and and awakening diverse audiences to the Oneness of the Creator and Creation.

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​In this vein and by virtue of an enduring association with the plucked instrument known as the rabab, the tradition of the rababis came in to being, whereby lineages of hereditary Muslim musician-devotees continued to serve the subsequent Sikh Gurus and their community of disciples by spreading the non-sectarian wisdom of great saints such as Kabir, Namdev, Farid and the Sikh Gurus, with their music. 

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This tradition endured over the centuries with the Golden Temple of Amritsar serving as one of its primary beacons. It was only following the rise of identity politics and religious reform in the late colonial period, that the rababis became estranged from their Sikh and Hindu brothers by the spread of new ideologies, emphasising outer religious differences rather than shared piety, thus resulting in their migration to Pakistan following the Partition of Punjab in 1947.

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Today, despite the enduring separation of communities, and the obtrusive boundaries of nation and religious orthodoxy, the flame of spiritual wisdom and love that united Bhai Mardana with Guru Nanak, continues to burn in the hearts of the rababis of Pakistan, its light offering a glimpse of the beauty represented by their tradition.